And so after a first 49 games of the season that had exceeded almost all expectations, it’s with a barely audible whimper that the Rangers go into the All-Star break.
For a team that has spent much of the first half establishing a dynamic offensive attack while leading the league in goals scored, the Rangers couldn’t get a single one of their 34 shots past Flyers goalie Steve Mason as he collected his first shutout of the season in defeating the Blueshirts 2-0 on Wednesday night at the Garden.
“We played the right way, but we didn’t finish,” coach Alain Vigneault said. “The type of game where you feel like you deserve more, but there are some games like this.”
It’s hard to think of how much more the Rangers (31-17-1) really could have done to get to Mason, except on the putrid power play, which went 0-for-3 and is now 0-for-14 over the past four games.
It’s not like the Flyers (24-19-6) were totally shutting them down, as the Rangers held the play in outshooting Philadelphia, 34-26, and out-attempting them, 69-48.
“I thought we played a great 60-minute game,” said J.T. Miller, who was just far enough away from Jakub Voracek when the Flyers forward was able to send a puck toward the crease, have it bounce off Michael Grabner, Kevin Klein and then the right post before inching over the goal line to give his team a 2-0 lead with 10:15 left to play in the third.
“For most of the game, we were the better team,” Miller said. “Early on we definitely had some good looks and could’ve been playing with a lead, but their goalie made some great saves.”
Mason set the tone in the first period, when he robbed Rick Nash on a 2-on-1 midway through and followed it up by denying Grabner, alone in front with just over a minute remaining in the opening frame. The Rangers kept coming, but the scoreless tie was broken only when Matt Puempel took a tripping penalty 5:35 into the third period, and Grabner failed to clear the puck on the ensuing man-advantage. It resulted in Wayne Simmonds being afforded enough room in front to lift a backhand over Henrik Lundqvist’s shoulder to take a 1-0 lead.
“You go 50 minutes and it’s a tie game, then a bounce like that where we don’t manage to clear the puck, and after that, they really kind of shut it down,” Lundqvist said. “We wanted to finish strong before the break. There were a lot of good things, but it was not enough.”
There were a lot of good things for the Rangers to think about at this juncture in the season. Lundqvist, for one, came out of his weeks-long crisis of confidence and was back to his old reliable self in the four straight starts going into this break. And, soon after the break, his steady backup Antti Raanta will be able to shoulder some of the load when he is ready to return from his lower-body injury.
The skaters in front of Lundqvist have been far from perfect, and the defense has lapsed at times. That could stabilize somewhat when Marc Staal is ready to return from his post-concussion symptoms soon after the break, as well. But playing through some major injuries up front has not been easy, and the Blueshirts still have found a way to keep pace in the cutthroat Metropolitan Division.
“Our team should have a lot of confidence in one another,” said captain Ryan McDonagh, the team’s lone representative for this weekend’s festivities in Los Angeles. “We’ve had to win games in different fashions, comeback wins, and put up some big offensive numbers at times.
“I think ultimately, we should have a lot of confidence in this team. When we play with a lot of speed and execution in our game, we’re tough to hang with.”
Just not on this night, not as Mason got the best of them and sent them off for the break on a sour note.